


Ten Seconds

by nidorina



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-27
Updated: 2011-10-27
Packaged: 2017-10-25 00:33:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/269664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nidorina/pseuds/nidorina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are ten seconds left on a clock that will change everything. (EoA5 spoilers.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ten Seconds

There are ten seconds left on a clock, _tick-tick-tick_ , that couldn't go too fast for her. Slowly, a flower is blooming, opening itself up in a dazzling display of color unheard of in this land of desert waste. Its petals blossom forth and a flash of light fades, leaving a king finally standing before his queen.

Questant, the woman may have reminded herself perhaps another time, but titles don't matter. Not now, as he steps towards her and holds out the hand that does not clutch the notebook. She takes it in her own and their ivory, carapaced fingers intertwine, fitting together like the perfect harmony of lock and key. Nothing matters. Not now.

“I missed you,” she whispers in greeting and hopes that the words are strong enough to bear the burden of all of the meaning she sets upon them.  


“I missed you, too,” says her king, and she falls into his embrace.

 _Tick-tick-tick._

There are five seconds left on a clock that a pair of star-crossed monarchs had been too lost in their own reunion to notice. The sound is enough to make them jump aside and hold each other's hands tight as (three, two, one) the countdown ends and a new flower blossoms.

Barely seconds are given. A black figure bares his canine fangs and in a single swift motion tears the sword out of his chest and across the air. The king's face is frozen as the blade carelessly flings his head off of his shoulders and blood splatters on the ruin floor as if it had been a guillotine.

She wants to scream but can't remember how and even hesitates in letting go of her beloved's hand, and it's still warm but its hold is gone, like a key being torn from a lock it wasn't ready to leave. His arm drops beside his body with a dull thud that the queen doesn't hear over a low growl. The word _no_ is caught on her breath as a bloody sword drives into her chest and there is red, red, red before her killer's carapaced body and her vision are the same shade of black.


End file.
